Koban 6: Conflict and Empire

by Stephen W Bennett

  Thond’s first act, even before leaving his shuttle, or knowing if the Pounder would survive the attack, was to link his memory assistant to the flagship AI for information. Next, he called Grudfad. “Lieutenant, I recommend you link the fleet data feed into your Combat Center back to every Ravager. They need that slight warning time to defend against any more such cloaked attacks. Your AI just informed me that this Pounder would likely have been destroyed if there had not been time for the flagship to intercept several missiles.”

  “Yes, Sire.” Grudfad wasn’t about to remind FC Thond that Space Force responsibility had just been transferred to him. But he felt it necessary to point out a consequence of obeying Thond’s politely offered recommendation. “Won’t the high use of data transfer significantly occupy much of the flagship AI’s computation time, and limit data fed to our weapons center from our own sensors?” He wanted to demonstrate his grasp of the ships AI assisted defenses, and its limitations.

  Thond wasn’t impressed. “Of course. Which is more important? The flagship or the rest of the fleet? Assign a couple of Ravagers as your escorts. I need to move out of this shuttle and join Hitok, Thond out.”

  This was another lesson in experience and priorities for the Lieutenant Force Commander, now Acting Space Force Commander. Thond wanted him to realize his ship, and its commander, were subservient to the needs of the entire fleet he now commanded.

  As Thond strode onto the Pounder’s bridge, the bulky body armor concealed his impressive silver tipped black fur. Nevertheless, a distinctive black and silver surface design, a default pattern programed into his stealth system, identified him to Hitok. Just as Hitok’s charcoal gray fur pattern on his armor, with a gruesome helmet top resembling a blood-spattered skull, identified him as Head Basher.

  Hitok used his memory assistant to trigger his armor’s simulated fur shiver mode, turned to greet his friend and offered an apology. “Gimtal Thond, I welcome you to Pounder Group 1 old friend. I suppose I should add that I wish the meeting had been a little less warm. I’m sorry our reunion has started so badly.”

  Triggering his armor’s shiver mode, Thond thumped his armored chest once in respect. “What fun is a battle if the enemy never does the unexpected, and offers no surprises?”

  Offering one thump in reply, Hitok said, “This surprise nearly ended yours and my participation. When you traveled here from the shuttle bay, you must have seen where one of the two missiles broke through. My ship engineers say the hull damage will slow our atmosphere entry speed, but if we grant them a short time, they can weld two temporary metal sheets over the holes so we can descend at higher speed. They can make a longer lasting repair on the ground.”

  Thond flipped his armored hand in a gesture of agreement. “I think that is an advisable precaution. I’m sure the humans have in place defenses they used against the Krall clanships that conducted raids. We need every advantage that speed can provide. Any of your other damaged ships should make similar repairs, if it doesn’t take too long.”

  He was quick to amend his advice. “Although, I’m not telling you what to do with your group specifically, but as overall Force commander I’m going to order all group commanders to proceed as rapidly as possible with landings, to move towards their assigned cities and capture the spaceports. The way each of you accomplishes that is your responsibility. I provide the goals and my four Ground Force commanders, jointly or independently, decide how to achieve those goals.”

  Hitok squatted briefly, indicating assent. “Therefore,” he said, “I’ll send in my undamaged Pounders first, to establish a perimeter and offload my armored units, while we conduct limited repairs on the damaged ships. My command ship will obviously be one that is delayed slightly. I lost three Pounders, with fourteen others too damaged to make an entry without repairs. I intend to conduct three waves of entries. Undamaged ships land immediately, a smaller wave will follow with this ship after a short interval for repair, and any that require longer repairs to follow as they can.”

  “Krintar, how many landers do say you have to send in the first wave?”

  “I have eighty-three undamaged ships, with forty-one thousand five hundred Ragoons total, and four armored vehicles per ship. I’ll have three hundred thirty-two Pillagers of various types that can form an Armored Force column to send ahead to the city that I’m assigned to capture. I don’t yet have the exact count of the types of armor that will be in the undamaged ships, but it will be varied. A mix of Debilitaters and medium lasers, heavy plasma cannon and light lasers, heavy lasers and a mortar, or my favorite, the large smooth bore self-guided enemy armor killers, or bunker busters, on the largest Pillager base. There are only four mobile command centers, one per Pounder Group, and mine wasn’t damaged in the attack. We agreed not to bring any personnel carriers because we expected to land at our primary targets, not travel overland to the spaceports. Now Our troops and armor will have to separate.”

  Hitok wasn’t offering a criticism, since he had sided with Thond’s argument to leave those vehicles behind. They both had favored more troops and heavier armored firepower, instead of greater mobility for fewer Ragoons. He repeated an ancient Ragnar truism. “A plan of attack never lasts longer than the enemy’s different opinion.”

  The Force Commander shivered the electronic fur pattern displayed on his left shoulder, to indicate a sort of shrug. “My initial plan didn’t last long today. Now I need to change the enemy’s opinion by what I do to adjust.”

  ****

  “Henry, we need to adjust.” Mirikami announced. “Even without PU navy assistance, I think we have enough Kobani ships to drive off the Ragnar fleet, or severely hurt them if they refuse to abandon the invasion. But there isn’t enough radiation protected body armor in the entire Federation for everyone, and we don’t have armored vehicles or anti-armor weapons to drive the Ragnar off the planet. At least not before the Thandol could send part of just one of their three far larger fleets to drive us away.

  “There are nearly a thousand rippers asking if they can go fight with us. Obviously, we can’t risk losing so many of them, not that so few of them would make that much of a difference in this case, against so many. Not until we have a viable defense against the Debilitaters. No one with a nervous system is immune to the radiation, but anyone from Koban is far more susceptible than are the PU regular army troops against that weapon. You saw the images from Zanzibar. Our people die, or become totally incapacitated at relatively low exposures to the radiation, compared to a Normal that is mildly affected. Tanner’s needs more help than your Kobani spec ops. We need regular PU army forces.”

  Nabarone felt as if he was betraying his friend, his people, and himself. But his hands were tied. “Tet, I can’t send regular army men and women into a new war without the approval of President Strickland. I’ll live with the violation of my oath to the PU, to help preserve Koban and the Federation, but I can’t ask those troops to do so. I can’t even solicit volunteers, because they aren’t free to do that either. I’ve convinced Foxworthy to load my Kobani speck ops onto her troop carriers today, with the expectation that Strickland will have a Kobani Comtap link to relay deployment authorization before she needs to Jump.” He paused, sending a mental image of troops filing onto a PU transport, and equipment, including armored vehicles, being loaded into their equipment bays.

  “As you can see, Tet, they’re wearing or carrying their Kobani body armor, but only about half of them have recently been to Koban or K1, to have their suits radiation proofed. We thought we had more time. Most of them will need the same sort of fine copper mesh that Tanner’s PDF forces are using. But I sure as hell don’t have any.”

  Mirikami had the remedy. “Fortunately, that’s something I can have delivered in a half day, Henry. We started producing copper mesh several months ago, for use in shelters on Koban and Haven. We have hundreds of rolls, fifty feet long and ten feet wide, that we can send you. Your people would have to assemble their own protective covers from that
, but there are templates loadable into a standard fabric and clothing cutter. It will use a body scanner to measure each trooper, and then a laser cuts the mesh sections for assembly in just minutes. They’ll have to hand stitch them onto a lightweight uniform, or something like long underwear. I understand it’s a thirty-minute task once the technique is shared by Mind Tap. The rolls will be there later today.”

  “OK. But how many more people in protected suits can you send to join my nine thousand Kobani? I doubt the PDF already on Tanner’s can hold out for long, and the spec ops I can send aren’t nearly enough. I can give them shoulder fired anti-tank weapons from Poldark, and we have thousands of war surplus tri-barreled ladybugs parked in long rows there. I don’t know if the PDF troops on Tanner’s have any equipment like that for fighting armored vehicles.”

  Mirikami agreed to pick up the equipment. “I’ll divert some of our ships to Poldark, if you’ll have people ready to drive two hundred of those ladybugs onto them. We can deliver them when our next wave of reinforcements reaches Tanner’s world.”

  Then he had a sudden thought. “Hey! Won’t you get in hot water for stealing the ladybugs? Aren’t they army property?”

  Nabarone snorted in derision. “Ain’t I a general in that army? I’ve recently decided, just seconds ago in fact, that I want my spec ops to conduct live fire exercises with mobile tri-barrel plasma guns. Besides, most of them were to be turned into scrap, before any of them could disappear and make their way into some black market weapons deal, sold to Rim world crime lords or a wannabe despot. Screw the paper pushers. Can’t you take more than a couple of hundred with you?”

  “I doubt it. The lower holds on the next ships I send will be nearly filled with a single Shadow space plane in each of them. One per ship is all that fits with the portals closed for stealth. I’m sending all four hundred thirty-two that survived the war. Like your mothballed ladybugs, they’ve been parked on dome tarmacs at Koban and Haven, taking up room.

  “Before you ask, I have to tell you it’s too late to put that equipment on the first ships I sent to Tanner’s. I promised to send two thousand more ships as soon as possible, and they Jumped twenty hours ago, so they’re only ten hours from arrival. When they get there tonight, twenty-two hundred of our fleet will be there with the original flotilla. The Shadows, ladybugs, and antitank weapons will go on the next thousand ships, and there are at least a thousand more ships scattered around Human Space and the Federation, which have to deliver passengers or unload cargo before coming home to arm up for a fight.

  “I’m holding back five hundred ships here to guard Koban and Haven until the stragglers arrive, but we’re stripping the Federation bare right now, sending most of what we have for our own defense to Human Space. We’d better have as detrimental an impact on that invasion fleet as we expect, because we won’t have a chance at another first impression with the Empire.

  “We have to convince the Thandol and Ragnar, if not to leave us completely alone, to at least tread cautiously and go slower. We need more time to prepare, and to convince the PU to fight alongside of us.”

  Chapter 6: Maximum Engagement

  Two hundred fresh Kobani ships arrived from the colony of Paradise, and the Prada home world of One Land, which was being resettled. As directed by Mirikami, they joined Athena Christopoulos’ command group, which was now too large to be called a flotilla. However, at two hundred eighty-six vessels, the group wasn’t nearly powerful enough to be called a fleet under the present circumstances. It couldn’t fully engage the Ragnar fleet, with its two thousand Ravagers and six hundred Shredders. In roughly twenty-five hours, they would be joined by two thousand more ships from Koban, and Thad Greeves would have overall command at that time.

  Athena had been updating the two inbound groups in the fifteen minutes before their exit from Tachyon Space. She told them the latest events as they formed up around Tanner’s world, spread out to avoid presenting a concentrated target before they were ready to engage.

  “Captains, the Ragnar’s actions reveal they can sense our presence even when stealthed, probably by our mass concentration, since we’ve detected no low frequency radio signals, which can weakly reveal us. This was an inadvertent revelation on their part, because I gathered my flotilla on one side of the planet, just before you made your exits; in order to leave you room to spread out more. The Ragnar shifted three hundred Ravagers to positions approximately below us, and they have just micro Jumped them more evenly around the planet in the last few minutes, after you appeared. They sensed your masses suddenly appearing. Bear that in mind before you think you can sneak in and sit undetected in their midst.”

  “Commander, this is Cal Branson just in from One land, what are they up to right now? It looks like they’re about to land more troop ships.” He knew she was perfectly aware he’d led the flotilla that came from One Land, but this was a general open link, and not everyone in the link knew that.

  “Cal, the second wave of Pounders are about to enter the upper atmosphere, and the orbital rail guns will go active at any time, with programing to focus mainly on their Ravager escorts, and to fire on the armored Pounders only if they are extremely close. There’s a chance they can hurt some of the damaged and hastily repaired troop ships, but the heavy explosive slugs are a greater threat to the more lightly armored Ravagers, and might even disable or destroy a Shredder. Planetary Turbulence control guided dozens of their heavy missiles towards the first wave of landers, which being undamaged came in fast, with Ravager escorts for cover. The PDF managed to bring down only four landers, and they didn’t use the Rail guns at all. They saved them for use on this next smaller wave. It looks like there will be sixty-three damaged landers making the attempt.”

  Cal asked, “Are we going to be involved in discouraging them this time?”

  Her answer was cheerful sounding. “I’m happy you asked, Cal old buddy. You bet your sweet ass we are. I just had my AI send all of your AIs the codes for your Identification Friend from Foe IFF systems, to make us immune from being targeted by PDF weapons. We’ll independently micro Jump to the edge of atmosphere and fire on the descending Pounders and their Ravager and Shredder protectors, while the rail guns blaze away at the same time. There’ll be more heavy missiles climbing up to intercept the landers in particular, and aircraft launched smaller anti-ship missiles. If we can keep the Ravagers busy dodging the combined attacks, they can’t take out as many missiles going after the landers. The Shredders tend to stay at the periphery of their fleet, as if they expect us to fire missiles from a distance, which they try to destroy. Or that we’ll charge in at them in a mass attack, instead of Jumping in among their closely packed ships on our own. It’s obvious they never faced an enemy like the Krall, and definitely not like us. The Empire must have had very orderly wars, from the generally non-hostile species they annexed.

  “We’ll go in independently, when each of you feels ready. I’m Jumping twenty seconds after I stop talking. Remember, their AI’s coordinate their joint laser and plasma fire, so keep moving, spinning, and micro Jumping. They aren’t very good at navigating and fighting like that. Good luck.”

  ****

  “Braslat!” Hitok cursed. “Thond, I thought your FLC said only another two hundred human ships had appeared? They fight like deranged garvals, and they’re everywhere, biting, clawing, and ripping at us. It’s like there are three times as many.”

  “Yes,” Thond agreed. “The humans accept high risks of appearing inside another ship at every Jump, and they Jump often and everywhere. On the other hand’s knuckles, I ordered the escorting Ravagers to stay close to the landers to defend them, and they’re being hurt more often because they can’t leave them to maneuver freely. The Shredders, positioned at the edges of the fleet formations, are frequently unable to launch missiles or fire energy beams into our formations for fear of striking our own ships if they miss. We’ve never engaged an enemy as reckless as this.”

  He also admitted to an error in
his own judgement. “Those small satellites I foolishly ignored on our arrival are now firing thousands of explosive projectiles at Ravagers and Pounders alike, and they have killed five Shredders that attempted to defend Pounders. They completely ignored us on the first wave of landers.”

  Hitok had a revelation. “I think they saved the railguns specifically for this second wave, because our damaged Pounders can only travel at half the usual velocity as they enter the upper atmosphere. Two of my group already lost their welded patches, and the ionic plasma of reentry widened the holes and reached inside, killing the Ragoons too near the openings. When the pilots slowed their descent, to reduce friction causing ionization, the large ground based missiles found them. They have us in a vicious trap, and it’s no safer to return to orbit now than it is to continue with the landings.”

  “Commander.” An urgent call, from a sensor technician on the Pounder’s Bridge, demanded Hitok’s attention.

  “Speak.”

  “Two heavy missiles are tracking us, Sire. I’ve discharged decoys yet they somehow continue to follow us, our tail lasers are encountering highly reflective surfaces, and they alter course so frequently that our two rear firing plasma cannons have missed them three times. One or both of them will overtake us at our present speed, before we can reach the surface.”

  One of their three Ravager escorts had fallen by the wayside a short time ago, destroyed by a combination of a string of rail gun projectiles into their Bridge, a damaging near miss of an aircraft launched anti-ship missile, and several plasma bolts from enemy spacecraft through open weapons ports, which had damaged the Normal Space drive. The Ravager had nosed over towards the surface of the planet, and started to tumble, streaming friction generated plasma behind them.